Watch Unforgivable Blackness – The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson Online
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After the adequate “Baseball” and downright disappointing “Jazz,” some of the luster associated with the name of Ken Burns has used off in the last few years. I couldn’t assist but wonder, when I saw that this documentary was in the works, if we were doomed to rep more of the same from Burns, especially considering the involvement of Stanley Crouch in the project. Thankfully, it appears that Burns has returned to build with “Unforgivable Blackness.”
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Really, it is about time somebody did a documentary on Johnson. If he isn’t the best heavyweight ever, there are only maybe two others that one could keep ahead of him. Only Ali can rival him for mastery of the science of boxing, yet Johnson is comparatively obscure these days.
In many ways, this documentary spends relatively microscopic time on the proper sport of boxing itself, which will be an annoyance to boxing enthusiasts. Personally, I would have enjoyed a more detailed discussion of unprejudiced how astronomical Johnson’s defensive skills and the fact that he was rarely a slugger in the ring (Stanley Ketchel notwithstanding), but this might have been listless to a mainstream audience. Mostly, Burns returns to familiar territory — accelerate relations in an earlier era — only with a dynamic personal & rebellious twist in the person of Johnson, who was utterly unconcerned with his critics, be they dark or white, and who felt no compulsion to work for the betterment of anyone other than himself.
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Even though I was relatively familiar with the government’s persecution of Johnson via the Mann Act, it was tranquil fabulous to study unprejudiced how many resources the government was willing to consume in order to bring one dismal boxer under its control. Laissez faire obviously is in the gaze of the beholder.
To Burns’ eternal credit, even though he clearly sympathizes with Johnson, he also points out that Johnson drew his absorb color line once he became champion. Burns has been well-known for serious omissions in past projects, and I fully expected to hear nothing about the fact that Johnson repeatedly refused to give Sam Langford (the greatest heavyweight never to become champion — slay of discussion) a shot at the title. However, Burns does discuss, albeit somewhat briefly, the fact that Johnson spurned other sunless boxers because there was a) no money in it, and b) the various White Hopes were remarkable easier pickings. Thanks to Johnson, a whole generation of very skilled dismal boxers missed its opportunity to fight for a championship, and this is a fact that simply cannot be ignored. If Burns had omitted this, it would have badly cross the documentary. Profitable for him!
The archival footage is especially handsome, even with the comic cramped sound effects added in. Also, kudos to Burns for including Bert Sugar in his cast of talking heads. One can listen to Stanley Crouch only for so long; better to have someone who has spent his whole career writing about the sport of boxing actually discuss the sport. The voiceover work is, as usual stellar. The music (provided in portion by Wynton Marsalis, I guess) is decent enough.
All in all, this documentary represents the return of Ken Burns to his earlier gain, and I hope continues to design documentaries of this calibre, although it would be hard to accept a account as involving as that of Jack Johnson.
I knew something of Jack Johnson before I saw this documentary, but Ken Burns tells his anecdote with extraordinary detail. One of the many revelations for me was the unbelievable level of popular racism that was prevalent at the time. Supposedly reputable newspapers (e.g., The Recent York Times) and authors (Jack London) are quoted at length, with bigoted excerpts that border on inflammatory. One couldn’t imagine hearing something of this nature from today’s mainstream media. Unbiased the very opinion that a dismal man/African-American could defeat a white man seemed preposterous to many; so mighty so that boxers often refused to even fight one. It took Jack Johnson a long time to fetch a shot at the title; but once he got it, it took white America even longer to obtain it succor. What stands out in this program is the towering figure of Johnson himself.
I couldn’t aid noticing that Johnson appeared to be the prototype for the current American athlete. All the brashness, bravado, conceit and over-indulgence that we associate with the “headliners” of today…all this began with Johnson. He seemed to revel in flouting society’s conventions. When you judge of the arrogance of Ali, the controversy of Jim Brown, the bravado of Namath…Jack Johnson was all this before they were. At the same time, however, I can’t encourage but remember Charles Barkley saying “I am not a role model.” Jack Johnson wasn’t either, as worthy as Murky America wanted him to be. In the raze, he was too loud, too defiant, too controversial. He was too distinguished, really, for the times. But I came away from this program thinking exactly what he wanted his epitaph to be: Jack Johnson WAS a man. No doubt about that.
Five stars.
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